1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for distributing digital content, particularly entertainment content such as movies, television, motion pictures or other over a network.
2. Related Art
It is well known that the business of creating and distributing motion pictures has been hugely successful over the last hundred years. Although each year has its share of successes and failures, the motion picture industry as a whole has thrived throughout the 20th century and now into the 21st century.
In the early part of the 20th century, motion picture studios were efficient and well-run factories that produced entertainment products primarily on film and then distributed film prints around the world. These motion picture studios became adept in maximizing the returns on their investment in the United States and also around the world as they learned to localize the film prints (by dubbing or adding subtitles) and then distributing these localized film prints to their intended exhibition houses.
When television came of age, the major motion picture studios adapted themselves by leveraging their facilities and infrastructure to provide short-form motion pictures for network primetime feeds and subsequently through local broadcast means.
In the later decades of the 20th century, new technologies became available that offered some challenges to the motion picture studios. Home recordable video tape (for example Beta-Max and VHS) became widely available and, for the first time, the motion picture studios could no longer control the entire distribution chain. In fact, consumers could make copies of virtually any entertainment asset directed to a TV set and distribute these copies at will. Ultimately the motion picture studios decided to support this paradigm shift by supplying pre-recorded tape-based products to the market. However, a “dent” was made in the armor of the studios in terms of their ability to tightly control the supply chain (end to end). During this period of time, the well known “Blockbuster” chain appeared with its model of overnight tape rentals. The revenues received by the studios for these overnight rentals were significant. At the same time, the degradation from one tape copy to the next made the threat of piracy manageable. Although commercial piracy began to appear around the world, a pristine copy of a VHS could only be obtained by purchasing an original “authorized” copy.
By the close of the 20th century, a more significant threat had arrived on the scene. That new threat revolved around the digitizing of entertainment content for the purpose of providing high-quality product through an entirely digital distribution chain. Through many years of hard work and dedication, the scientific community in coordination with academia created methods and processes that would accurately represent previously analog content material into a digital format. On both the audio and the video sides of the equation, means, methods, and processes were developed that translate the analog source material into a virtually perfect digital representation which suffers little or no degradation however many times it is replicated. This is the point where the armor of the motion picture studios received their second “dent”. These digital copies further distanced the studios from the supply chain (due to the fact that digital sources are much easier to manipulate and distribute than analog sources). Although rampant digital piracy began to appear by the closing years of the 20th century, once again the studios prevailed as they could further monetize their assets by distributing optical discs (such as DVDs and VCDs). Those digital copies were, for the most part, too large for most consumers to easily move from one computing platform to another. A number of industry experts began to warn the motion picture community that significant threats to their business models were on the horizon.
In the early 21st century, some cameras used within the production process became digital and, in some cases, analog production media began to disappear completely. At the same time, readily available broadband capacity at the consumer level was increasing at an exponential rate each year. In an effort to defend themselves against further threats of rampant piracy, the studios began a campaign to rigorously tighten security requirements around their digital assets in order to gain better control of the supply chain. In addition, the studios have championed new legislation in the US designed to detect acts of piracy, prevent its proliferation, and establish civil or criminal liability for those involved. The coupling of the new security technologies along with the heightened policing of pirated content has been effective at certain levels; however, piracy continues to be a significant threat in most areas of the world and is virtually out-of-control in others.
By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, another paradigm shift, commonly referred to as High Definition (HD), is likely to be widely adopted. The shift to HD content is considered an enormous opportunity by virtually everyone within the non-theatrical supply chain. The vendors of products and services to the production and post-production communities are able to sell new gear and establish new service offerings. The consumer electronic and information technology vendors also have an opportunity to sell new gear at the retail level. Consumers have the promise of a much better viewing experience. The major studios are also looking forward to the shift to HD as their opportunity to make significant adjustments within the digital supply chain in order to greatly reduce the threat of piracy (casual and professional). The term casual piracy (more precisely termed as “looting”) means the ability of a relatively unknowledgeable and inexperienced consumer to make unauthorized copies of content without assistance from a highly skilled engineer. Professional piracy refers to the more knowledgeable individual actively engaged in attempting to steal and re-sell digital content. Studios are motivated in the endeavor to reduce the threat of piracy in their market by the example of music piracy, and the rampant illegal distribution of digital video from DVDs, for which the encryption system was famously compromised soon after DVDs were introduced into the market.
Once the supply chain is filled with HD capable equipment and devices, it is the hope of the studios that people engaged in acts of piracy will be commercial criminals who can be isolated, detected, and effectively prosecuted. At the same time, normal consumers may learn that there is better economy in purchasing content than engaging in acts of looting given the threats of being caught and prosecuted.
For decades, the vast majority of entertainment content delivered through the various supply chains was analog and flowed in a single direction. Terrestrial broadcast and cable television services in the United States are very good examples. Although satellite delivery of content is primarily digital, it is also well known to be a one-way solution.
Current day motion picture studios carry out a number of functions. These include obtaining and reviewing potential projects (treatments and scripts), selecting the projects which appear to have the most promise, making decisions regarding funding of the selected projects, and engaging a production company to create the desired asset in the form of a television show or movie. Authorized copies of the digital assets are made, and then distributed according to license agreements. Focused advertising and promotional campaigns are initiated. At the same time, steps are taken to protect the studio's assets (i.e. the copyright movie or other entertainment media). Currently, most of these steps are routinely carried out using legacy means and processes, and could be more efficient.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method that improves the overall process.